Show Reviews

This was my first show, so this will be my first review. I was a wee lad of 15 growing up in Westchester, New York who fell in love with Phish after someone played me the Lawn Boy CD. I was already a Zappa fan, so I was instantly 'hooked'. Our group of young troubadours took the train and got to the show a little early. The lot scene was small behind the venue. Mostly just people hacky sacking and hanging about. I remember looking up at the Cap building and a window opened - it was Trey. I'm guessing he was backstage, and he was leaning out and smiling as he checked out the scene below. I think he called over Mike or Fish to take it in with him. It was still new back then. We got to the small, legendary theater and walked right up front. Third row between Page and Trey. The scene was so mellow, the seating so fluid, people were dancing in the aisles for ARU. Aquarium Rescue Unit opened, and killed it. It was loud. Fast. The audience was hyped-up and me and my crew were shouting "Oatmeal" at Oteil, and Jimmy Herring was looking at us with that "you crazy kids" look. Phish don't have opening bands anymore; the closest they come to that friendly competition musical thing is when they play festivals. But walking onstage after ARU more than warmed up the crowd... the guys launched into Sweet Adeline. Why? ARU are amazing musicians, but they don't do A Capella. Jedi chess move. Then Phish played The Asse Festival as a separate piece, for the 24th time, possibly for the last time ever (1235 shows ago as of this writing). Again, ARU were hot, but they don't do fugues. The Possum and Tweezer are standouts. But the Reba is a bit of a dark horse in my opinion. Composed section is tight, but there's a funkiness to the instruments (especially the tight drums) on the SBD. The solo is where it's at: the interplay between Mike, Page, Fish, and Trey is pretty amazing. They are doing a lot more direct echoing and there's a lot of synchronicity happening. There isn't a wasted note by Trey, and Mike is there, listening, echoing, following along. For an example of this, listen at 8:00. Trey plays a descending lick, Mike sings it back, then Page and Fish echo that together. Harmonious playing. Mike is leading and comping at the same time, while being very funky with an octave pedal. It's hard to describe the cheer after that jam, which sounds dulled on the SBD. It was the sound of thousands of Phish fans being convinced this was IT. The cheer at the end of the tune gets a rare "thank you" from Trey and "thanks a lot" from Page. The response was that deafening, they had to respond, and they waste no time and go straight into a fiery Llama. It's a song Trey apparently wrote in response to all those fast ARU tunes. Checkmate. Phish has the crowd.

This was my first show and there are so many ways I could take this thing. We'll start with a little history. I became aware of phish in the early fall of 1990 when my buddy Skills gave me a copy of Junta on tape. He wrote the track list on the lines and then carefully drew the phish logo in the middle. A month or two later, another buddy saw them open for Blues Traveler (same venue, 10-6-90). He couldn't stop raving about what he saw that night.

Based on two those events, I started seeking out the music. Access was very limited back then. As I mentioned, Junta was out. Lawn Boy with the Fee bonus track was also released. And then there were bootlegs. Those were even harder to find. And when you did find them, the sound quality was miserable (dudes calling out for songs plus beer bottles clanging) and the songs were always labeled incorrectly. For a long time I thought "harpua" was called "hardua" because that's what my tape said.

As for the show, it was a lot of fun- mostly young kids running around without a care in the world. I remember holding up my ticket for Golgi, seeing the vacuum come out and hearing Alvenu Malkenu (at which point I turned to Skills and said don't we know this number?).

With the benefit of time, this site, and the ability to stream shows, I can put my experience in perspective. I'm grateful that I got in when I did and have been able to ride it out for almost 25 years. It's like seeing the Dead in 1970 and then going to 1995.

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